In the search for efficient engine and fuel strategies, many different power plant and power delivery strategies have been investigated. The gas turbine or Brayton cycle power plant has demonstrated many attractive features which make it a candidate for advanced vehicular propulsion and power generation. Gas turbine engines have the advantage of being highly fuel flexible and fuel tolerant. Additionally, these engines burn fuel at a lower temperature than reciprocating engines so produce substantially less NOxs per mass of fuel burned.
An engine must be fit into the vehicle's engine compartment and be mated to the vehicle's transmission system. A Class 8 vehicle will have substantially different packaging requirements than a Class 5 delivery vehicle, an SUV or a pick-up truck for example.
For power generation, packaging requirements are different from those of a vehicle and an engine must be packaged along with power electronics, often in settings that require the engine or engines to fit more efficiently in confined spaces.
In both vehicle and power generation applications, multiple engine configurations may be used. For example, 2 or more engines may be packaged to provide a power plant for a locomotive. Two or more smaller engines (in the range of about 200 kW to about 1,000 kW at full power) may be packaged to provide back-up power for a multi-megawatt renewable power generating facility.
There remains a need for a versatile engine design whose components can be arranged to fit the packaging requirements of various vehicles from small cars and trucks to large trucks and for various power generation applications from back-up power generation to large on-line power generation applications such as converting large renewable power facilities into dispatchable power plants. This need applies to both single engine and multiple engine applications.